Every so often, someone will start a thread asking “What fictional character was most rounded/developed most during a series?” Within minutes, the SDMB servers then crash as many of the Teeming Millions (including me!) say “Wesley Wyndham-Price! He went from an ineffectual dweeb on Buffy to the hardest man in LA on Angel, yet the progression was so subtle and well-thought out that it never seemed unnatural.”
In other words, there should be a writers’ award called the Wesley, given for the most believable and skillful rehabilitation of a one-dimensional, one-note character.
What other fictional characters*–from literature or comics–should have awards named after them, and why?
*Note that I wrote “characters.” This isn’t about real people who should have awards named after them, so no fair making Bush or Hilton jokes.
Exactly! Call the OP’s idea the Wyndham-Price Award, because Wesley is tied up (and beaten, I hope) with a very well known and almost universally disliked character from the Star Trek franchise. Heck, even many non-Trekkers know this one, and EVERY Trekker surely does, even the very casual ones.
Oh, come on, gigi. You know you’re an exception to all my edicts. I’ve even ordered my minions not to execute you without a good reason after the conquest.
But Londo changed more than any character on TV: he was clearly a buffoon in the beginning (and pretty much one-note until he was asked “What do you want?”), then became a dangerous villain, then reformed, then was a victim of fate.
The only character close was G’Kar, who also started out as a militant buffoon, then a freedom fighter who would stop at nothing, and finally a holy figure.
And then there’s the Shatner. Whether he’s a pre-bolshevik pacifist, a terrorised airline passenger, a starship captain, a cop, a sleazy lawyer, or a commercial spokesperson, he still plays it almost exactly the same way.
Peter Griffin’s Brass Chin* was first given to Seth McFarlane for creating a character that was such an obvious ripoff of an already established character. And then steadfastly refusing to even admit the two characters have anything in common.
*You see, it’s because “his chin looks like balls.” Giggity, giggity.
Another character I think should be given the Wyndham-Price Award: Dr. Stanley Riverside II, from Trapper John, M.D.. He started out as a latter-day Frank Burns, the anal retentive jerk who existed just to harass/ be put down by the title character. But eventually he was shown to be lonely and insecure, living in the shadow of his rich domineering father. He finally met a female doctor who actually liked him, and when Stanley’s father flat-out ordered him to drop her (convinced that she was just a gold digger), Stanley found the balls to tell him to go to hell, and married her.
Ernest Borgnine. Every damn movie he turned on his mates and went off for himself. Why was he always the selfish jerk? Who will take over that role in the future.?
You forgot “Flagrant Acts of Betraying Young Girls Who Worship the Ground You Walk on By Raping Them and Then Having Your Author Explain That Away BY Saying You Were Overwhelmed by Being Suddenly Healed of Leprosy Even Though We All Know That’s Utter Bullshit and in Fact You Need to Have Your Penis Cut off with a Rusty Spoon and Fed to You Raw.”
Have all your nerve endings killed off by Hansen’s disease and then wake up in an impossible world you can’t believe in on pain of dying horribly, and then have your nerves miraculously healed, before you cast the first stone. Good for you if you always behave impeccably in your dreams.
Meanwhile, if you want me to play in your thread, don’t piss on my posts, m’kay? :dubious: